By Liapeng Raliengoane
MASERU – In a bid to promote women empowerment, Female In Africa (FIA) Lesotho Chapter Chairperson Ntahli Griffiths has urged women to support and uplift one another.
This she said at FIA Lesotho commemoration of International Nurses Day at Ha Thetsane last Wednesday.
“Since we have nurses and retired nurses in our organization, we found it worthy to remember them and celebrate International Nurses Day with them, to mark and remind them how selfless and important their services are,” she noted.
Griffiths also urged women to support each other no matter the relationship, nationality, denomination, colour, age and size. She highlighted that women should stop hurting each other, stop gossiping and bringing down fellow women.
She said; “If as women we can give up this much hatred towards each other and bad competitiveness, we will succeed.”
One Retired Nurse Elizabeth Letsie said she felt honoured by what FIA Lesotho did for local nurses. “What a beautiful breath-taking event! I feel very proud, excited and forever grateful. May Female In Africa Lesotho and World-wide grow bigger and bigger,” Letsie denoted with much delight.
Meanwhile, FIA is currently collecting sanitary pads that will be donated to girls around the country.
“Women and girls are built strong, that means we can endure all types of pain, more pain than men could ever feel. With that being said, we should not allow anyone to belittle, abuse, criticize, dismiss and talk down on us. We have to know our worth and be encouraged to stand up against our abusers. Therefore, I am calling out everyone to step up, be steadfast and be open to help women and children in need. Let them know they can lean on us in times of need. That is why we are donating to girls around the country,” Griffiths indicated.
International Nurses Day is an international day observed around the world on 12th May each year, the anniversary of the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale’s birth, to mark the contributions that nurses make to the society. The theme for this year’s Nurses Day is “Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Invest in Nursing and respect rights to secure global health.”
Female In Africa Lesotho is a chapter of the Female In Africa International Humanitarian, Empowerment and Non-profit Organization whose objective is on advocacy: fight rape, gender based violence, fight against girl child abuse, early childhood marriage and protect the rights of women. Humanitarian services: help females in prison, female refugee camps, women with disabilities, poor females in hospitals and ones that cannot pay their school fees. Empowerment: try to raise hope to women to be self-reliant, empower them with small scale business and give them training through workshops, public gatherings and seminars.